The Roundup

Another week, more storms

The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "Gov. Jerry Brown asked the federal government Sunday to provide additional help for California’s storm recovery, including repairs at the damaged Oroville Dam."

"Brown’s request for a federal disaster declaration follows three similar requests this winter amid widespread weather-related damage. The three earlier appeals were granted, expediting assistance for flooding, problems on roads and bridges and other issues."

"At Lake Oroville, state officials are trying to make a pricey fix on two spillways that failed last month. Concern that a hillside below the dam might erode, which never happened, prompted the temporary evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents."

Capitol Weekly's LISA RENNER: "California’s already poor roads deteriorated to a whole new level of disrepair this winter. Sinkholes have popped up throughout the state and major roads have closed because of damage."

"To cite just a few major examples: Portions of Interstate 80 and Highways 50 and 49 were closed due to mudslides. Parts of Highway 1 remain closed because of storm damage. Numerous local roads were battered severely."

"As Californians suffer through crumbling highways from severe winter storms, the governor and legislators are aiming to approve a transportation funding package by April 6 that will start to repair the damage."

Daily News' COURTNEY PERKES: "A Southern California cardiologist’s study of indigenous South Americans found that an extremely healthy lifestyle appears to prevent coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in the U.S."

"Dr. Gregory Thomas, medical director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Long Beach Memorial, helped lead the research project that was published Friday, March 17, in the British journal The Lancet."

"Researchers took CT scans of the hearts of 705 Tsimane adults who live in the Bolivian Amazon. While 91 percent of Americans at age 80 have coronary artery disease, only 15 percent of Tsimane adults had risk of heart disease, which in most cases was low, Thomas said."

Daily News' BRENDA GAZZAR: "The Rev. Francisco Garcia Jr. knows how difficult it can be for an immigrant to endure church-offered sanctuary."

"A decade ago, as a layperson, Garcia supported an undocumented man living in sanctuary at a Lutheran church in North Hollywood. The Guatemalan gardener, who was subject to a deportation order, spent a year confined in the church, mostly isolated from his family. Eventually, he couldn’t live that way and returned to his life in the outside world."

"That was incredibly hard … for everybody,” said Garcia, who today leads the Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood and is co-chair of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles’ Sanctuary Task Force."

The Chronicle's JUSTINE PHILLIPS: "Every night at her Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in the Mission, Azhar Hashem plans for 10 percent of the people who have made reservations simply not to show up. Most nights, she’s close to her expectation."

"Hashem is the owner of 10-month-old Tawla, and like many of her peers, she often deals with last-minute cancellations and diners who don’t honor their reservations. That can mean empty chairs in her 62-seat dining room, a significant hit when it comes to the razor-thin profit margins of the restaurant industry."

“Especially for a place our size, a no-show means a missed opportunity to bring in another guest to dine, which is important when the restaurant is so small,” Hashem said."

AP's EILEEN SULLIVAN/ERIC TUCKER: "A congressional inquiry into Russian interference in the presidential election that has so far unfolded behind closed doors moves into the open with a public hearing featuring FBI Director James Comey."

"A hearing Monday before the House Intelligence Committee, one of several congressional panels probing allegations of Russian meddling, could allow for the greatest public accounting to date of investigations that have shadowed the Trump administration in its first two months."

"Comey, whose agents have been investigating, has been invited to testify along with Michael Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency."

"For allies of Trump — aides, politicians and right-wing news sites — these are evidence of the existence of a “deep state,” a secretive, coordinated network inside the government dedicated to undermining the administration."

"Asked by reporters recently whether the deep state exists, Sean Spicer, the president’s press secretary, offered this observation: “I don’t think it should come as any surprise that there are people burrowed into government during eight years of the last administration and may have believed in that agenda and want to continue to seek it.”